


whatever happens, happens

by suhoya



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Cowboy Bebop AU, KuroDai Week, KuroDai Week 2016, M/M, but there are both crashes and crushes, important: nobody carries any weight in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 16:26:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6336103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suhoya/pseuds/suhoya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A spaceship about to crash, and Kuroo’s heart with no airbag.</p>
            </blockquote>





	whatever happens, happens

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this au when I rewatched cowboy bebop last year and I kept thinking how interestingly kuroo, daichi and hinata would fit the roles of spike, jet and ed in his own way. (But mostly, kurodai was perfect for this setting like honestly???? Bounty hunters relying on each other, aircrafts and OUTER SPACE.)
> 
> This fic’s been agonizing in my draft collection for far too long so I thought kurodai week was the perfect excuse to finish it at last. This is my contribution for Day 5: AUs/Crossover!  
> I suck at descriptions, even more if it’s sci-fi technical stuff in english so I apologize in advance if something sounds off. D: I tried my best to find the right terms!  
> Deeply recommended to listen to any of the [official osts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meECq9NvPpc) while reading (or just living, you know)
> 
> Btw, it’s not necessary to have watched cowboy bebop in order to understand this fic, though if you haven’t, you definitely should <3 (there are no major spoilers in this au)  
> Hope you like it and thanks a lot for reading!!

  

_* * *_

_I think it’s time to blow this scene. Get everybody and their stuff together._

_Okay, 3, 2, 1, let’s jam._

_* * *_

 

 

Kuroo had been to a lot of explosions hard enough to take out his life.

He had survived all of them out of God’s misery.

 

The last collision of his crappy old aircraft, fixed and refixed a hundred times, begged for forgiveness and oblivion beyond further repair, but Kuroo insisted long enough, hands on the controller, gripped tightly to send him straight to the big spaceship ahead of him at unknown speed.

He didn’t have anything to offer, anything to pay, yet he hoped at least that ship in the distance wouldn’t belong to one of the hundred bounty hunters he collected for enemies.

 

The actual impact wasn’t as loud as it sounded in his ears and numb consciousness, but he heard the glass window shattering before him, some pieces falling sharply on his skin leaving crimson remnants of what it seemed like a final stop.

The smoke from the engine, completely ruined this time in hopes for a long awaited eternal rest, flowed among the zero gravity and crashed parts of the aircraft.

Kuroo took pride in himself after noticing how he managed to crash skillfully against the protected magnet deck, well enough to just smash the front gate of the hangar.

Numbers rose up and down in his mind, counting an estimated amount of debt he’d have to gather for the owner.

Nothing far from what he was used to, anyway. A couple missing dumb robbers from wanted gangs in the asteroid belt would seal the deal.

 

With swollen limbs and a long experience in fatal landings, he managed to sneak out of the rusted blue craft through the now vanished front window of the cockpit and dropped to the floor of the deck. He was already inside the foreign spaceship, a few red alarm lights flashing and warning of the sudden unsolicited visit.

“I swear to God if you’re not dead I’ll make sure you are!”

There was a stern voice coming out from further inside, followed by the metallic sound of heavy steps on stairs.

Kuroo grinned, his face glued to the ground, and his body suddenly starting to weigh too much.

The stranger’s footsteps were closer, closer, until they stopped right next to Kuroo and kicked his head to the side to examine him. Kuroo looked up to him, and even through his daze and blinding lights from the ceiling, he could make out a very handsome face glaring down at him.

 

_Life is but a dream…_

“Hey angel… won’t you happen to have some meat? I’m starving.”

And in the next second, everything faded to black.

 

 

 

 

Kuroo woke up to the smell of seasoned vegetables. He groaned as he got up from a rather comfortable leather couch, his vision slowly trying to focus around and recognizing the environment. His arms were a bit sore but the bandages he was covered with helped greatly. Guessed the pilot of this ship store the mercy Kuroo never had.

He examined his body further down – he still had his own pants and boots, looking slightly torn and scratched. He could deal with that.

“Daichi-san!! The dead’s alive!!”

Kuroo felt as if a sharp needle crossed his head and frowned at the sudden childish shout from behind, and when he turned around his eyes met a skinny boy with orange hair staring at him curiously.

He started to hop around in excitement, and Kuroo wanted to strangle him.

“Daichi-san! Daichi-san!”

“Hinata, I am cooking, the dead _CAN_ wait!” was heard from the place the pleasant smell of food came from.

Kuroo got up completely against his wish, still a bit drowsy and leaned on the back of the couch, trying to find some balance. He rubbed and scratched his messy hair - no bandages and no wounds.

The energetic boy crouched down at his feet, his bright and questioning eyes still flashing contended excitement.

“You’re the luckiest dead alive, huh! Your ship went straight into the Bebop like _Bwaaaaaaahh_!” He raised his arms in the air, motioning the wings of a plane. “And then it crashed like _Fuoshhhh_! Nothing like I’ve ever seen!”

Kuroo was suddenly feeling even more tired than before.

A few steps and the tasty smell from the kitchen took presence in the foreign living room. The man whom Kuroo had seen for barely a few seconds stood there, wearing a white apron, a frying pan in his hand, and a skeptic frown on his face.

Despite the funny attire, he still looked handsome.

“Welcome back from the land of the dead, space cowboy.”

Kuroo’s figure warmed instantly at his voice. It didn’t sound threatening anymore, much less while stirring a burning pan quite domestically. However, he caught a striking difference in his left arm, the one holding the pan. He had a mechanical one.

And besides that, a vertical deep scar crossing his right eye and brow.

_Tough guy, this one._

“I guess you guys didn’t receive my visit card?” Kuroo adventured, mockingly.

The man chuckled shortly, sounding impressed.

“Good you kept a sense of humour.”

Kuroo stretched his arms finally, and yawned trying to let go of all the laziness printed all over him.

“So, uhm- Thanks for this,” he pointed out at his bare skin covered with bandages. “And for not kicking me out.”

“Well, the one who breaks must pay.”

Kuroo remembered. Right, the crash in the hangar.

“…I kinda was in the middle of some bounty,” he explained.

“Yeah, I assumed. I mustn’t worry then, you’ll manage just fine. You’ll get that bounty eventually.”

His eyes translated the generous statement into a plain order.

Kuroo realized he started to like this guy.

“So, huh- how may I call you? You’re the pilot of this ship?”

The man’s gaze softened, and resumed stirring the food in the pan while walking back to the kitchen. Kuroo wasn’t sure if he could but followed him.

The kitchen was just a small room with the basics: a cooker, some tools, a couple cupboards. Above all that, some old wires and pipes hanging from the ceiling.

“My name’s Sawamura Daichi, captain of the Bebop,” he answered, giving a few last nudges to the pan and switching off the fire.

“And the lil’ kid?” Kuroo asked curiously, tracing a quick look behind, where the mysterious boy was now rolling on the floor as some kind of exercise routine.

“Oh, that’s Hinata. A little informatics prodigy I saved from the bad guys.”

“So you’re, like, an animal shelter?”

Sawamura scoffed, and turned around, facing Kuroo again.

“Sure. First a little bird, now an annoying big cat,” he assured, crossing his arms. He looked kinda amused, which only made Kuroo feel accomplished.

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“And so who are _you_?”

That was the most difficult question he could give an answer to.

“Kuroo.”

Sawamura’s brow flinched.

“Kuroo? Just Kuroo?”

Kuroo shrugged. “Is there anything else you need to know?”

Sawamura’s piercing gaze examined him as if he was trying to dig deep into his eyes, into his brain and thoughts.

That was not something Kuroo easily allowed to do. But for a moment, he feared Sawamura would manage, at some point, read his mind. Or worse, his past.

Sawamura seemed to be done with the inquiry, which Kuroo accepted with relief. He grabbed the pan and some chopsticks, while Kuroo stepped aside to let him pass.

“Well then, Kuroo, since you asked for meat, here’s my specialty, bell peppers and beef.”

Kuroo’s stomach growled in anticipation, and headed back to the living room where Sawamura and Hinata had already gathered around the table next to the couch.

“Bell peppers! Bell peppers!” Hinata chanted while bringing his chopsticks together and making them sound as pliers.

“Did you say _and beef_? Where’s the beef?”

Glancing at the pan blowing off steam, there could only be seen a mixture of green peppers, onion and mushrooms.

Sawamura let out a warm chuckle. “Welcome aboard to the crew of the Bebop, Kuroo. We already have a new mission – get money for beef.”

Kuroo’s stomach could only growl more loudly this time.

 

 

 

As Kuroo expected, Sawamura wasn’t going to give him a free tour of the Bebop, so he was left by himself wandering around, while the captain headed to the hangar where there was still, supposedly, the damage Kuroo had caused.

The Bebop didn’t seem like your usual spaceship, rather something else turned into a spaceship. Kuroo realized it had been skillfully upgraded, with clear post-installed roofs and added enclosed spaces.

He arrived to what seemed the bridge, surrounded by datafeed monitors and a huge navigational screen table. The sound of updated technology beeping filled the air and made Kuroo feel oddly relaxed. He walked around, hands in his empty pockets, trying not to miss any interesting spot.

He went through several passages until the leading way to the hangar, judging by the metallic noises of tools, drilling and hammering.

Kuroo leapt downstairs, the same stairs he heard clicking beneath Sawamura’s steps not many hours ago. Down at the deck, the Bebop’s captain was examining a red spacecraft, which had suffered most of Kuroo’s careless crashing.

Kuroo’s blue crappy one looked definitely a goner.

“Sorry I hurt that beauty,” he shouted over the drilling.

Sawamura turned around. He was wearing black protective glasses, and he was smoking. Suddenly, Kuroo realized how much he needed one, too.

“She’ll live. As for yours…” he took his glasses away, and glanced towards the pile of shit that once was a respectable craft. “How the hell could you fly with that?”

“Oi, _rude_ ,” Kuroo replied, getting closer. “She’s been through a lot, okay? I guess it was time for her to leave.”

“Yeah, I wished you had decided to get rid of her somewhere else but my ship.”

Kuroo didn’t say anything to that. Though, among all possibilities, he could consider himself lucky for where he landed.

“You don’t have anything else?” Sawamura asked, his eyes once again peeking at him as if he was some kind of thing to examine carefully.

“Besides my humour and a gun?” but once he said that out loud, he patted alarmingly on his pockets, bare, empty. “Fuck.”

“Guess you lost another of your girls today.”

Kuroo swore again and cursed himself for such _bad_ luck. He didn’t think he’d be reckless enough as to lose his gun in a lame space fight.

“Shit. I really did _not_ count with this,” and as if there was still some hope left in his non believer soul, he cocked his head and pointed to his ship. “Have you checked it isn’t there?”

“I lost like half an hour on that pile of shit. There’s nothing remotely useful left.”

Kuroo sighed, his palm covering his eyes.

“No cries, no cries,” Sawamura muttered faintly clenching his teeth while holding the cigarette. “I have plenty of weapons. Just to be clear, it’ll add up to your sum.”

Great, more unexpected expenses.

“Then, despite everything… I’m allowed to stay?”

“Well, you _do_ know you’re in debt here.”

“How many will it be?”

Sawamura pondered for a moment, let out some smoke out of his mouth.

“Two million, at least.”

Kuroo swallowed as unnoticeably as he could.

“Cool. Sure. Definitely.”

Sawamura took another drag, staring contemplatively to the point Kuroo felt it was just plain cruelty.

“Got any free cigs?” he risked to say.

The grim look faltered, and then turned into resignation.

“You’re seriously gonna drain all of me,” Sawamura snarled, but threw his own cigarette at him anyway, and Kuroo caught it with great precision.

“I’ll try to keep you in place, captain,” Kuroo bowed his head, grateful, before turning on his feet and going back upstairs.

“Oh, and Kuroo. Get your clothes from my quarters. Your weak bones showing are annoyingly distracting,” he commanded with a ridiculous amount of effort at attempting to sound indifferent, but Kuroo could easily see through the pretense.

 

He smiled to himself.

 

_So we have now even more in common._

 

 

 

After dinner (sadly still with no beef), Kuroo stayed in the living room, now with no lights on but only the faint glowing imagery of outer space through the wall windows. He couldn’t sleep so he tried to keep focused on practicing his martial arts. It was incredibly calm and perfect to do some exercise at that time, and Kuroo wished it’d last for more than just days.

He didn’t feel much sore anymore, just faint tingles when he punched the air with his left arm, or when he kicked his legs too high. He could deal with that. He had seen worse.

There was sweat running down his temples, when a low noise interrupted his concentration. His eyes trailed to the corner, where a buff shadow was observing him.

“Shit, Sawamura. Stop stalking like that.”

Kuroo could catch a shy smile on his face, then he opened what Kuroo didn’t know until then it was a small fridge. Sawamura took out a can of beer.

“You got beer in there!?”

Sawamura rolled his eyes at him and tossed him the beer, which due to the zero gravity, swam in the air, wiggling around towards Kuroo.

“You talk too soon. You wish everyone had my wide sense of hospitality.”

Kuroo opened the can and took a long gulp like the thirstiest man on Mars. He almost couldn’t remember when was the last time he drank actual beer and not that shit he stole from lousy gangs.

“You can’t sleep?” Sawamura sat on the couch.

“Sleeping is not my talent,” Kuroo confessed, finishing the beer with just one more shake. “Neither is dreaming.”

Sawamura smirked. “You afraid of your dreams?”

“Dreams do not appear only when closing your eyes.”

Sawamura’s eyes were too intimidating even through the dim light of the room, so Kuroo felt the urge to turn on his back and face the vast space surrounding them.

“You’ve been a bounty hunter for very long?”

Kuroo tried to remember, but the concept of time had quickly lost all meaning and sense up there, above everything.

“As far as I remember,” he replied. “You are, too, aren’t you? Unless you’ve got secret millions of woolongs stored somewhere, you gotta get money that way.”

He heard Sawamura inhale deeply, as if he could smell easily that thought of being rich.

“It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but life happens and one’s got to adapt.”

“What did you do before?”

“I belonged to the SSTP.”

Kuroo’s shoulders almost jolted in surprise.

“Wow. Can’t believe I crashed into a cop’s ship and survived to tell the tale.”

“Former, anyway. Don’t really miss it, yet I have this to remind me every day, regardless.”

Kuroo cocked his head above his shoulder, and saw Sawamura clenching his mechanical arm with a gloomy expression on his face.

_We all live with our phantoms of the past, don’t we._

Kuroo leaned on the window as comfortable as he could, crossing his arms and facing back, finally accepting the invisible bond of revelations that he and Sawamura created.

“So you saved Hinata in one of your missions for peace, captain?”

Sawamura smiled and sank his wide back against the couch. It seemed the memory wasn’t much recent.

“You could say so. He was being tracked for his hacker capacities in a secret gang operation near Jupiter. I was settled in my hometown around that time, Ganymede, and took that mission myself. Something terrible would’ve happened to him.”

“You really care about that kid,” Kuroo mentioned, rather touched. “Adorable.”

Sawamura tried to hide his blush by staring up at the ceiling. “Shut up.”

 

 

Kuroo kept on practicing for a while, concentrated thanks to the silence of the room. Sawamura didn’t leave, instead he observed Kuroo do his exercise with fair interest until his tired eyelids took over and fell asleep.

When Kuroo came back from a quick shower, Sawamura was still there, deep asleep, lying hunched on the end of his couch.

Kuroo wasn’t sure if he was allowed to use the captain’s bunk, so he took the other end and stretched opposite him. The couch was long enough for two people, but since Kuroo was taller than most people, it ended up feeling a bit tight. He folded his legs so as not to bother or kick Sawamura.

In not very long, he was dragged to a deeper dream.

 

 

 

 

When he opened his eyes again, the noise of typing and tapping and beeping started to drive into his ears, frenetically fast.

He moved his legs but couldn’t actually – with a tired glimpse, he saw Sawamura’s tangled on his. The man’s legs were heavy as hell as he tried to sneak away without waking him up, but in the end he gave up and pulled hard. Sawamura was startled.

“Hm—Huh?”

“Rise and shine, captain,” Kuroo saluted, now standing up.

“What, I fell asleep here? Ugh—“ Sawamura cracked his neck and motioned his left shoulder only to realize what a terrible mistake that had been.

“If you wanted to sleep with me on the couch, you should’ve said earlier. We could’ve cuddled.”

Sawamura shot him a glare that could put Kuroo to an eternal rest.

“So what’s for breakfast?”

Kuroo strolled past the centre of the room and saw where the noises were coming from. Hinata was eagerly typing into a computer on the floor.

“Hey, Hinata. Having fun?”

Hinata turned, thrilled, while somewhat dancing on the floor and doing impossible twists. “Kuroo-san! Daichi-san! I found a great bounty! Five million for this guy!!”

Kuroo thought the bounty could wait a minute, and searched around for a packet of cigarettes. On the fridge, he found one with a lighter inside.

Now he could deal with whatever the day may have ready for him.

 

 

 

 

So the mysterious bounty that would cover all his debt in one go was an archived committed felon and probably also a murderer who had escaped from imprisonment in Mars and was now nowhere to be found.

Although, statistically, if the announcement had been released just a few hours ago, he couldn’t have gone very far away from the zone they were travelling.

«Authorities can’t acknowledge outside help for the felon, nor if he is still on the planet.»

“Any ideas where he could be, hunter?” Sawamura asked him for experience.

Kuroo wondered the same thing, staring into the smoke blowing off his cigarette, as if a vision would appear to give them the answer.

He leaned on the table of the navigation system back at the bridge, and checked thoroughly the photo of their prey.

His eyes looked empty and drowned in sickness.

Kuroo tapped on the screen, zoomed it in. No doubt.

He felt like cackling out loud.

“That guy is under the bloody eye drug. He must have been released illegally in hopes of following him to the big dudes and capture them altogether. Child’s play.”

“So he’s just a junkie?” Sawamura wondered, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Kuroo smiled.

“A lame junkie that can lead us to five million. What else you need?”

 

 

 

 

They decided to visit Mars in order to gather some information, and who knows, maybe they’d find the guy without having to search all through space.

Mars didn’t recall good memories for Kuroo, yet he had to gulp down his past and head towards the only city they could land on – Alba City.

The dust and sand sweeping the streets of the metropolis soaked his clothes right off the very second they stepped their feet on. Sawamura didn’t like the hot temperature either, and Hinata didn’t seem to mind.

The crew agreed on splitting and look for clues, answers or extra money.

Kuroo looked for a cold drink instead.

The first bar he came across with was an old tavern not much threatening for his wallet.

“Whatever this can cover,” he said and put the only spare change he had managed to get from Sawamura on the wooden counter.

The barman, as old as the place, glanced at the money and poured barely two inches into the bottom of a dusty glass.

Kuroo guessed that would do.

The other men sitting on chairs in small groups, gathering around the tables with their glasses empty, made Kuroo realize for the first time they weren’t the only ones looking for the same bounty. Even if it wasn’t the highest of bounties, to some it was still an acceptable compensation.

So when the first one shot fire, Kuroo already saw it coming.

He threw himself out of the stool and propped up to the counter, rolling and falling behind. The ceaseless bullets were landing in all directions but Kuroo had been always good at dodging. Besides him, the frightened owner of the tavern was covering his head, formed into a ball of resigned panic.

“Quick! Kill him and get his spaceship!”

“Are you sure we can make it to TJ?”

“Of course we will! Get your ass out of here!”

TJ was the asteroid nearest Mars, and Kuroo had already thought about it as a possible escape for the felon. It was known TJ had plenty of drug dealers and syndicates around their streets.

He just needed some confirmation.

Kuroo loaded his gun (well, actually, Sawamura’s) and peeked through a hole from the counter. Most of the guys had run off, and still there were two waiting for him to stand up.

He did and in a second he knocked both of them down.

The sound of bullets and glass shattering and wood cracking came to a stop.

The barman sighed. “I’m thinking of moving to somewhere more peaceful. Any recommendations?”

“If you find that place, I’ll be eager to know where it is.”

Kuroo drank his glass, luckily untouched from all the shootout, and stepped out of the tavern.

 

 

He found Sawamura not very far away, carrying a bag of who knows what.

“You got anything?” Kuroo heard him yell across the street.

“We already have the destination. What is that? You went out grocery shopping and let me do the dirty job?”

“It’s beef. And other things.”

“Sweet heavens, Sawamura. I may fall for you at this rate.”

Sawamura grabbed a chunk of bread from the bag and stuffed it into his mouth, munching with little appetite. “Yeah, whatever.”

They wasted like an hour searching for Hinata.

They found him playing around with resident kids in a lost alley.

 

Obviously the Bebop remained perfectly safe and sound right where they left it. If those guys thought they could get aboard easily, they certainly hadn’t set a foot out rotten Mars.

They took off and left the red unforgiving planet below.

 

 

 

 

 

Kuroo had also nearly forgotten how actual roasted beef tasted like. Sawamura was quite a good chef, not that he had many figures to compare him to.

Sitting back at the couch, Kuroo was devouring all in his plate.

According to the navigation system, their destination was getting closer and Kuroo thought it’d be a smart idea to leave the Bebop at safe distance.

He finished his food earnestly, and got up, ready for the job.

“So I need to go to this asteroid past this belt. You lend me one of your crafts?”

Sawamura’s face turned into a scowl.

“Did I hear _I_? You’re going on your own now?”

“Well, it’s my debt after all. And someone’s gotta take care of the Bebop, captain. So much vandalism in outer space, you know.”

Sawamura seemed to consider that a respectable suggestion.

“Where is it? How far?”

“That depends on the fuel available.”

Sawamura shot him a look hard to decode.

Kuroo wished it meant something along the lines of « _I’m afraid something may happen to you_ », but probably it were closer to « _you’re gonna make me as broke as rats if you crash another of my ships_ ». Whatever it may be, Sawamura sighed as resignation took over him.

“The Swordfish II has just been repaired.”

Kuroo grinned, triumphantly. “I owe you another one, Sawamura.”

“Yeah, I lost count,” Kuroo heard him say dejectedly when he was about to leave the room. Underneath the circular door frame, his name. “ _Kuroo_ ,” Sawamura’s voice sounded too firm this time. Kuroo looked back to the couch. Sawamura was leaning on it, his mechanical arm around the top, and his intense gaze upon Kuroo’s. “If anything happens to you, I’ll kill you.”

Kuroo chuckled and waved goodbye with a lazy hand.

 

Given the circumstances, dying in Sawamura’s arms would be the best gift in the entire universe.

 

 

 

An extra passenger he did not expect was waiting for him, sitting at the cockpit.

“Hinata, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Daichi-san won’t let me pilot alone so I’m on with you.”

“I think I kinda agree with him on this one.”

“You’re heading to TJ. I know a detour!”

“There are no detours in space, kid.”

“Did you know I’m from Earth? I know a lot of things that you do not,” he snapped, putting his goggles on and leaving the seat.

That caught Kuroo’s attention. He gave him a crooked grin before setting the control panel ready.

“Okay, shrimpy, I admit you’re full of surprises. Hold on tight. ”

Tapping on some buttons and switching the engine gear on, navigation system also on, gate opening --- they launched free into open space.

 

 

 

 

Bringing Hinata had been The Most Terrible Choice Ever.

Certainly that red aircraft of Sawamura’s had been designed for a single pilot, and even a skinny short boy named Hinata felt like too much flesh on board.

Besides, he just couldn’t stay put. His tireless limbs didn’t stop moving around the small cockpit, blurring Kuroo’s vision at times.

The transmitter beeped and Sawamura’s desperate voice filled the cabin.

« _Kuroo, is Hinata there with you!?_ »

“Daichi-saaaaaan! I’m on an _adventure_!”

« _Fuckin—_ » Stop. Or interference. « _Hinata! That’s a dangerous mission! You shouldn’t have left the ship!_ »

“It’s okay, Nanny’s here,” Kuroo hushed.

« _Kuroo, if anything happens to him, too, I’ll kill you, twice._ »

“Delightful,” he replied half-heartedly.

« _How much longer until you land?_ »

“If Hinata doesn’t get us killed first, not much. An hour or so. He granted us a hella boring _detour,_ but at least that saved us some time.”

« _Don’t let anything happen to him._ » Sawamura repeated, as if it wasn’t clear enough.

“Yes, mom, yes, thanks for your concern, I’m _fine_ ,” Kuroo was starting to feel stressed and anxious so he grabbed a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

A low grunt was heard in response.

« _And you—just. Take care, too, alright._ »

The transmitter was cut off.

Kuroo let a tiny smile slip on his lips, and increased the speed.

Hinata was taken aback and bumped up the roof.

 

 

The asteroid came into vision after the approximate hour Kuroo estimated. Everything was going just ideally, when the sound of cannons and missiles woke them up from their daydreaming.

“Shit—“

“Kuroo-san! They’re attacking us from behind!”

“I know, Hinata, I have eyes and ears too!”

A few missiles scraped the ship very closely, and Kuroo tried to maneuver as fast as he could and spin the craft dexterously enough to miss the targets.

Hinata burst into laughter somehow, heard him yell about how fun that was.

Kuroo realized he was actually getting a headache.

He propelled The Swordfish’s own artillery out, swiveling the cannons to the back and shooting the two aircrafts that were following him.

They shot back, but they weren’t as accurate as Kuroo, and they fell behind after another charge of missiles.

Then something cracked on the left wing. The turbine had been hit, and the aircraft was losing balance.

“You think we’re gonna make it!?” Hinata shouted.

“Calm down, lil’ kid, everything’s in control—” Kuroo took over the control panel and managed to stabilize just enough to ensure a safe landing.

The dome where the life in TJ took place was more and more visible now, and Kuroo prayed—No, just hoped, it wouldn’t be too late.

Hinata didn’t seem to trust him wholly and grabbed himself tightly onto the seat.

 

 

 

 

They made it. The three of them made it with no trouble – Kuroo, Hinata, and the Swordfish.

The aircraft managed to land safely and smoothly on arid ground. There wasn’t much around, a gas station and some roads leading to a more active and crowded place.

Kuroo’s instinct told him he wouldn’t find them in the city.

If they were drug dealing, this could be the place.

“Hinata,” Kuroo urged his co-pilot, “you don’t move from here. This is final. I don’t want you past this spot.”

Hinata’s eyes flickered at him, but Kuroo remained impassive.

“Do. Not. Move.”

 

 

 

Kuroo stepped away and got deeper into a gravel road that lead to old buildings and ruins. Once the façades came into view, Kuroo realized they were some kind of churches. The ochre colored walls were painted with the passing of time and dust.

Something –probably his instinct striking again, along fragments of the past- told him to enter the sacred place.

The church had probably suffered tense encounters as some of the stained glass windows were broken. Some of the benches inside also showed marks of past bullets and other weapons.

Several steps resonated in the room, and Kuroo shook his head around, up, down, to all sides. The inner high walls of the chapel made it difficult to know where the sounds were coming from.

However, Kuroo saw a glimpse of bright hair shine at the top of a corridor above the first floor.

His heart twisted, reminded him, angered him.

Behind a pillar, just enough to be seen partially, the murder eyes that sank deep in his nightmares found his own. Beneath them, gaunt cheeks and gloomy grin he and Kuroo once shared.

The only man he was truly hunting, the man who took everything from him, was right in front of him.

Lots of words, lots of possible conversations came up in his mind, and yet he could say nothing.

He pointed his gun upwards, a straight line to his head.

The silence persisted, and then, his rough voice.

 

A whisper that sounded like knife scratching stone.

 

“Not yet, Kuroo.”

 

Kuroo fired a shot, and the black shadow disappeared.

 

A sudden chain of bullets echoed on his left side, which didn’t give him enough time to process the origin and chose to throw himself onto the floor.

A shaky figure was hiding through the pillars - Kuroo noticed the face of the sick junkie with bloody eyes. Sheltering himself under the wooden benches, Kuroo shot a few more times, and the junkie mirrored him.

Kuroo pondered if he could make it to his spot without being hit, but then realized he only had one bullet left and he couldn’t risk it.

With extreme caution, he peeped one more time.

The junkie wasn’t hiding anymore, yet he was waiting for him, no guns in sight.

Kuroo checked all over him, agitated and confused.

He then saw the junkie drawing something out from his lower back.

An oval dark object.

A grenade.

 

 

All this chase had been for nothing. Once again, Kuroo had failed.

Kuroo wondered if he’d be ever able to put a definite end to it.

The only man in the whole universe that didn’t have a price, only to Kuroo, vanished right before his eyes.

 

_Easy come, easy go…_

 

_Life is but a dream._

 

The junkie was about to throw the grenade at him. Kuroo followed the motion of his hand, and when the grenade was flying just middle way, he pointed at it.

 

It was now or never.

With the gun Sawamura gave him firm in hand, he pulled the trigger to his last bullet.

 

_Bang._

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kuroo didn’t know how much time had passed, or how long he had spent crawling his way out of the church, but he found himself in the open space of the church entrance, outside its walls now even more destroyed and chains of dark smoke rising up to the skies.

 

Just when the light of day took back over, he realized he was actually being dragged out. Strong arms under his armpits were pulling him away from the church.

Kuroo looked up, and a shadowed profile, then an angular jaw, was forming in his clouded vision.

 

 _Sawamura_.

 

Even though Kuroo wanted to laugh, he couldn’t. He was still feeling unstable due to the explosion.

“Sorry, but I don’t know where Hinata is,” he confessed, dragging the words between his teeth.

Sawamura was the one who laughed.

“Don’t worry, he’s over there speaking to a data dog.”

Finally, some actual relief. “Sweet.”

“Are you okay? Did you get hurt anywhere?”

Kuroo answered with a grateful smile.

“You really are my guardian angel, Sawamura.”

“Good thing I didn’t trust you completely with this mission,” he replied instead. “You will tell me what this was really about, someday. At least you managed to stay in one piece.”

“That’s one of my countless charms.”

Sawamura helped him get on his feet, but as soon as he got up his knees buckled and dropped to the floor. Sawamura dragged him again, towards a broken pillar and made him lean on it.

“Are you gonna undress me again and treat my wounds?” Kuroo inquired with amusement, knowing that he didn’t have any severe shots, just scratches.

“I’m not keen on that idea. I’ll just let you rest for a bit.”

Kuroo clicked his tongue.

“Was this all worth something? Did we get the deal?”

“Well, the initial reward has disappeared, probably bait — but we still got a fair amount in exchange of your recklessness.”

Sawamura pointed to the suitcases full of bills of woolongs that were to be the trade for the drug supply and that the junkie probably couldn’t snatch. That, if he did make it out alive.

Kuroo tilted his head. “Enough to pay my debt?”

Sawamura frowned, confused. “It does,” he admitted, not really caring for that at the moment. “Kuroo, you know you _can_ stay in the Bebop.”

 _Forever_ , his eyes seemed to foretell.

As much as Kuroo feared the Bebop to feel the closest thing to home, reality fell upon, reminding him he didn’t have a home neither did he know how a home was supposed to feel like.

“Honestly, I wasn’t born for that type of commitment. The thought of a place to go back to scares the shit out of me.”

That didn’t convince the captain.

“I’ve lost people, too, Kuroo. You’re not alone in this,” there was Sawamura’s eyes again, seeing all through him, seeing past all the hidden memories and wounds of the things Kuroo had in the past and sometimes forgot. “Just for once, think of gaining rather than losing.”

Kuroo coughed, throat dry and stuck with swallowed dust and powder. “Tempting, but not enough.”

Sawamura didn’t back off. He took a hard grip at the collar of Kuroo’s shirt, fists tightening, threatening for the first time since they met, and Kuroo remembered when Sawamura promised he’d kill him with his own hands.

That time never seemed more enchanting.

“What if I kiss you now? Will that be enough? Or will _you_ run away?”

Kuroo flashed a grin. He was being pinned down against a column, body sore because of yet another explosion in his countless life record. There was nowhere he could escape to, anyway.

 

Maybe the concept of a home wasn’t that frightening, after all.

 

He sensed Sawamura’s breath melting upon his, their faces getting too close and Kuroo allowing as he never did before.

 

_«You afraid of your dreams?»_

 

Their lips were achingly eager to touch across a fake mask of caution and pride.

 

_«Dreams do not appear only when closing your eyes.»_

_Everything is clearer now_

_Life is just a dream you know_

_(It's never ending.)_

 

He would never have the right answers for Sawamura. But he was glad Sawamura would never stop trying to reach for them.

 

With a last tug closer they both yearned for, Kuroo whispered.

 

“ _Whatever happens, happens_.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [See you, space cowboy! ☆](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxUbgEHP2Qg)
> 
> If you know about CB you may’ve noticed how this fic is slightly based off episode 1 with traces of Spike & Vicious backstory. Even though this is an AU, I wanted to put as most references to the original story as I could and stay faithful, and relating them to Kuroo, Sawamura, and Hinata’s own personalities. I hope it worked well and the whole story made sense ;_; there are so many settings in CB and I had to mix them all a bit lol.
> 
> ANYWAY, to conclude, if this made you interested in the Bebop universe, then [my job here is done](http://i.imgur.com/VB30ksL.png).


End file.
